Luxury resort of additional SP Divya Mittal held in graft case razed in Udaipur

JAIPUR: The civic authorities on Friday demolished illegal portions of a luxury resort in Udaipur owned by additional SP Divya Mittal, who was arrested in January for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a pharmaceutical company owner.
Udaipur Urban Improvement Trust (UIT) said that Mittal was given permission for a farmhouse on the land, but she violated norms by turning it into a hotel. UIT officials reached the Nature Hill Resort near Chikalwas, about 25km from Udaipur city, on Thursday night.
"A prior notice was also issued with an ultimatum to remove the illegal construction within 12 hours," said an official. The civic body officials, with the help of local police, vacated the entire building. On Friday morning, several bulldozers reached the resort and demolished the illegal portions.
"The first notice was issued on February 23. We later examined the details of the case and found that the farmhouse was converted into a resort and hotel without due change in land use," said another official. Sources said that over 50% of construction was illegal. As per records, the land was allotted for farming, sources said. However, authorities did not explain why they did not take action earlier.
Divya Mittal was posted as an additional SP with the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police.
She was posted in Ajmer district and arrested by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on January 16 for allegedly demanding Rs 2 crore bribe from a pharmaceutical manufacturer after threatening to falsely implicate him in a drug seizure case that she was probing.
ACB then conducted searches at various places in Ajmer, Udaipur, Jhunjhunu and Jaipur, during which they found that Mittal owned a luxury resort in Udaipur.
"The luxury resort in Udaipur was mostly used for destination weddings. Guests making use of the premises for weddings and other celebratory events used to pay very high booking fees," said an ACB official familiar with the probe.